The present invention relates generally to tool clamping devices and more particularly to an improved device for quickly and securely clamping rotary tooling adaptors to tool clamp blocks.
In the machine tool industry, and particularly in automated systems, it is necessary to use a variety of machine tools to perform specific machining operations on a single work piece. Repeated changing of work tools results in considerable amount of downtime in the operation of the machine and consequently a loss of production time.
The replacement of a tool holder in a tool clamp block or spindle is ordinarily a manual operation, time consuming, laborious, and somewhat imprecise thereby requiring certain adjustments after replacement. If the replacement operation is automatic or semi-automatic, the mechanical strength requirements of the tool holding mechanism leads to the need for complex and powerful changing mechanisms usually based on hydraulic principles, especially to unclamp the tool holder.
In the prior art there have been developed numerous types of tool clamping devices intended to secure tooling adaptors to clamp blocks. However, such devices are not effective in significantly reducing the amount of downtime on a machine caused by a tool changeover, and are further complicated in structure and expensive to manufacture.
It is desirable, therefore, to have a quick release mechanism which is not dependant on complex equipment and lends itself to manual control as well as sophisticated automated tooling systems.